Webicy Blog

September 14, 2009

Facebook Lite – Stripped Down to the Essentials

Filed under: Industry News, Social Media — Tags: , , — SticKer @ 1:47 am

Facebook has started rolling out a new, slick and speedy version of its website worldwide primarily aimed at those with slower connections. Facebook Lite (http://lite.facebook.com/) loads much faster than the regular version. The HTML is optimized, so there’s less code for browsers to download. The new version has fewer and smaller ads and pictures.

Facebook Lite’s news feed lets users write, post photos and videos, but unlike the regular Facebook, there is no toolbar for enabling access to Facebook Pages, Status Updates, Photos and Links. Lite’s profile pages are leaner, too. While the middle column of users’ profiles in Facebook Lite looks similar to that of the regular Facebook profile, the left and right columns in Lite are pretty bare, lacking the glut of photos, ads, applications and gaming invites of the original Facebook.

Lite could help attract new users. “We have found that people who are new to Facebook tend to be most interested in a simpler experience, and focus on establishing their network of friends by writing on their walls, sending messages, and looking at pictures” the company said.

Stripping away to the most commonly used functions seems to be the aim of the design, allowing users to see and post status updates, events, inbox messages, wall messages, photos and video. The lighter version has no application support, and on a whole seems like a welcomed return to the earlier days of Facebook.

Feel Free to Discuss about the new Facebook Lite in our ongoing discussions at http://forums.webicy.com/showthread.php?t=10448

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December 6, 2008

Facebook and Google launches new single user-ID services

Filed under: Blogging, Google, Industry News, Social Media — Tags: , , , , — SticKer @ 7:34 am

Web giants Facebook and Google unveil new features to promote the social web. A services that let users take their existing log-ins and deploy them across a number of sites.

Google’s Friend Connect, out now in beta, is pitched at webmasters who want to add social networking tools to their web sites. The search giant said in a blog posting that this is as simple as “cutting and pasting a bit of code”, and requires no advanced coding or technical ability.

“The goal is to facilitate an open social web,” said Google product manager Mussie Shore in the blog post. “Using open standards like OpenID and OAuth, Friend Connect makes it simple for people to instantly interact with one another on the sites that they already love to visit.

Facebook Connect, meanwhile, which was announced this Summer, has also been updated, according to a blog posting on its web site. However, as might be expected with a social networking site, Facebook is asking its users to create momentum.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg claimed that Facebook will add sites to the service where there is user demand, and asked subscribers to get in contact with the firms in question to request a connection.

Source: vnunet.com

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January 22, 2008

Nokia Taking A Minor Stake In Facebook

Filed under: Miscellaneous — Tags: , , , — SticKer @ 2:22 pm

Nokia is partnering with Facebook to build the popular social networking site into its handsets, reports suggest.

According to PaidContent, the deal could see a Facebook button appearing on hundreds of thousands of Nokia handsets, giving it the same prominence that YouTube currently enjoys on the main screen of the iPhone.

The report also claims that part of the deal would see Nokia taking a minor stake in the social networking site, though no financial figures have been released.

Nokia currently holds around 38% of the global mobile market, according to third quarter figures from Gartner, and the deal would certainly give Facebook a massive mobile presence.

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December 2, 2007

Facebook in trouble over controversial new advertising program

Filed under: Miscellaneous — Tags: , , , — SticKer @ 9:52 am

The new advertising program on Facebook has caused a mass protest by members in its short life span. Facebook is a popular social networking Web site.

In the last 10 days, more than 50,000 Facebook members have signed a petition objecting to the new program, which sends messages to users’ friends about what they are buying on Web sites like Travelocity.com, TheKnot.com and Fandango. The members want to be able to opt out of the program completely with one click, but Facebook won’t let them.

Late yesterday the company made an important change, saying that it would not send messages about users Internet activities without getting explicit approval each time.

The system Facebook introduced this month, called Beacon, is viewed as an important test of online tracking, a popular advertising tactic that usually takes place behind the scenes, where consumers do not notice it. Companies like Google, AOL and Microsoft routinely track where people are going online and send them ads based on the sites they have visited and the searches they have conducted. But Facebook is taking a far more transparent and personal approach, sending news alerts to users’ friends about the goods and services they buy and view online.

MoveOn.org Civic Action, the political group that set up the online petition, said the move was a positive one.

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